Inside the Star

'Sex and Death 101' : Cheeseball porn

Despite the premise of this movie – a ladies' man mysteriously receives an email containing a chronological list of all the women he has ever slept with, and all the women he ever will sleep with, to a total of 101 – the creator, Daniel Waters, insists it is not "cheeseball porno."

Despite the premise of this movie – a ladies' man mysteriously receives an email containing a chronological list of all the women he has ever slept with, and all the women he ever will sleep with, to a total of 101 – the creator, Daniel Waters, insists it is not "cheeseball porno."

Waters does possess some Hollywood cred. Although the only other movie he has ever directed, 2001's Happy Campers, about naughty doings in a summer camp, definitely smells like cheeseball. In his capacity as writer, however, Waters has created such respectable fare as Heathers and Batman Returns.

His leading man, Simon Baker, also owns a respectable resumé, including a role in The Devil Wears Prada.

Then there's Winona Ryder, a major film star of the '90s, grievously afflicted by various physical and mental ills and brushes with the law for shoplifting and other offences.

Even here she still possesses a winsome appeal, a youthful air. She plays Gillian de Raisx, a serial seductress who leaves her male victims either comatose or dead. What did she ever do to deserve this role?

The name of Baker's character, "Rod Blank," certainly sounds porn-like.

Why not simply admit this is cheeseball porn, assembled with a slightly higher brand of cheese and nuts? It's not every soft-porn flick that includes references to James Joyce and Gilles de Rais, the medieval French nobleman who was the original Bluebeard. Porn titles generally thrive on double entendres, and the multi-layered meaning of this movie's title is particularly felicitous.

Even the premise of the movie actually seems clever, once the movie's genre is conceded. Rod Blank feverishly works his way through the list of guaranteed lovers knowing that sooner or later he's going to get to the end.

By the time he's reached that terminus, he's almost ready for the lethal attentions of Gillian.

"So many games, so many names," he says with the world-weariness of the roué. "And all you're left with is exhaustion."

Then comes what in traditional pornography is called the "square up," the gesture to domestic virtue and happiness after the hero and heroine's sexual adventures are over.

Even at this point, however, the movie cannot shake free of its brazen vulgarity.

"Life is a lot like death," Rod's voiceover tells us. "It happens to everyone, whether they like it or not. The meaning of it, honestly? Who gives a f---?"

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